Lead, Reliability Engineering

Address:

Transformation Mandate

This role exists to fundamentally shift Commercial Banking technology operations from reactive support to an AI-enabled, engineering-driven reliability model at scale.

The Lead will own the outcome of this transformation, challenging the status quo and driving a step-change in automation, observability, and operational excellence.

Role Overview

We are looking for a high-performing, results-driven senior technology leader to take on the role of Lead, Technology Support & Reliability Engineering. This is a critical leadership position responsible for driving the reliability, resiliency, and modernization of technology platforms supporting Commercial Banking.

The successful candidate will set the vision and lead the transformation of traditional support into a modern, engineering-led, highly automated operating model. This includes the aggressive adoption of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), AIOps, and a forward-looking NoOps philosophy to reduce toil, increase automation, and enable self-healing, resilient systems at scale.

This role demands a proven high performer who consistently owns the outcome, questions the status quo, and delivers measurable improvements in stability, efficiency, and engineering velocity.

Key Responsibilities

Reliability & Production Support Leadership

• Lead L2 and L3 technology support and SRE teams across Commercial Banking platforms
• Own major incident management, escalation, and recovery processes
• Drive service stability, availability, and resiliency outcomes through the entire tech stack, including supporting functions such as infrastructure, helpdesk, data lake, etc.

SRE, AIOps & NoOps Transformation

• Lead the transformation toward a modern SRE-driven operating model incorporating AIOps and NoOps principles
• Drive implementation of observability frameworks, predictive analytics, and event correlation
• Enable proactive operations through intelligent automation and predictive capabilities
• Reduce operational toil through automation, self-healing systems, and intelligent workflows

Engineering & Automation Enablement

• Shift teams from reactive support to engineering-led operations
• Build automated workflows and deployment pipelines
• Enable end-to-end service automation and platform abstractions
• Support cloud adoption and improve proactive operational capabilities

Strategy, Governance & Operating Model

• Define and execute technology support strategy aligned to enterprise and Commercial Banking priorities
• Own and evolve the L2/L3 operating model
• Establish clear RACI and ownership models across engineering and operations
• Drive governance, controls, and continuous improvement

Stakeholder & Delivery Leadership

• Act as a senior technology executive and trusted advisor
• Manage cross-functional dependencies across engineering and platform teams
• Lead large-scale strategic initiatives and transformation programs

People Leadership & Talent Development

• Build and lead high-performing teams with a strong culture of accountability and ownership
• Attract, retain, and develop top engineering and SRE talent
• Drive a performance-oriented culture aligned to enterprise objectives
• Mentor and develop leaders capable of operating at scale

Performance Expectations & Outcomes

Reliability & Service Stability

• Reduce Major Incident volume (P1/P2) by 30–50%
• Improve Mean Time to Restore (MTTR) by 25–40%
• Deliver sustained improvements in service availability and resiliency

Operational Efficiency & Automation

• Eliminate 95% of manual operational toil
• Increase automated incident resolution through AIOps
• Reduce human intervention in steady-state operations

Observability, AIOps & Predictive Operations

• Establish end-to-end observability coverage
• Implement event correlation, predictive alerting, automated triage
• Improve alert quality by reducing noise

Operating Model Transformation

• Transition to SRE-led model
• Define L2/L3 ownership
• Shift to proactive incident prevention

Talent & Capability Development

• Build high-performance engineering culture
• Increase productivity and engagement
• Develop senior SRE capability

Qualifications & Experience

Required

• Both cloud (AWS/Azure) and on prem deployment and support
• Deep observability experience is a must, preferably with some exposure to Dynatrace
• Expertise in incident, problem, change management
• Demonstrated success in automation (Ansible a plus) and AIOps

Preferred

• Experience with Agile methodologies
• Financial services experience
• SRE/DevOps/platform engineering knowledge
• ITIL Foundations or better

Leadership Profile

• High-performance, results-oriented mindset
• Owns the outcome and challenges status quo
• Strategic thinker
• Strong communicator
• Passion for innovation and automation

Why This Role Matters

This role is central to transforming technology support into a modern, AI-enabled, highly automated reliability organization, impacting customer experience, operational risk, and delivery speed.

The above represents BMO Financial Group’s pay range and type.

Salaries will vary based on factors such as location, skills, experience, education, and qualifications for the role, and may include a commission structure. Salaries for part-time roles will be pro-rated based on number of hours regularly worked. For commission roles, the salary listed above represents BMO Financial Group’s expected target for the first year in this position.

BMO Financial Group’s total compensation package will vary based on the pay type of the position and may include performance-based incentives, discretionary bonuses, as well as other perks and rewards. BMO also offers health insurance, tuition reimbursement, accident and life insurance, and retirement savings plans. To view more details of our benefits, please visit: https://jobs.bmo.com/global/en/Total-Rewards

About Us

At BMO we are driven by a shared Purpose: Boldly Grow the Good in business and life. It calls on us to create lasting, positive change for our customers, our communities and our people. By working together, innovating and pushing boundaries, we transform lives and businesses, and power economic growth around the world.

As a member of the BMO team you are valued, respected and heard, and you have more ways to grow and make an impact. We strive to help you make an impact from day one – for yourself and our customers. We’ll support you with the tools and resources you need to reach new milestones, as you help our customers reach theirs. From in-depth training and coaching, to manager support and network-building opportunities, we’ll help you gain valuable experience, and broaden your skillset.

To find out more visit us at https://jobs.bmo.com/ca/en.

BMO is committed to an inclusive, equitable and accessible workplace. By learning from each other’s differences, we gain strength through our people and our perspectives. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process. To request accommodation, please contact your recruiter.

Note to Recruiters: BMO does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than directly from a candidate. Any unsolicited resumes sent to BMO, directly or indirectly, will be considered BMO property. BMO will not pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume. A recruiting agency must first have a valid, written and fully executed agency agreement contract for service to submit resumes.